In the aftermath of the now-infamous nanny trial, child care has
attracted the nation's attention. The focus is understandable:
According to the Children's Defense Fund, 13 million U.S.
children spend part of every day being cared for by someone other
than a parent. And most of these kids enter nonparental care by 3
months of age, are cared for an average of 30 hours per week, and
usually remain in such an arrangement until they start school.

All this has led to the boom of an industry that's woven
itself tightly into the social fabric of American life and
captivated entrepreneurs--from day-care operators to in-home
child-care providers. But while studies have uncovered problems
with child care, the issue waned somewhat until Louise Woodward hit
the headlines, bringing to the surface parents' worst
nightmares.

"[The case] made parents think about what they're
doing," says Nancy Adler Manket, co-founder with Marcia Zaiac
Wasser of Interactive Family Management, a Watchung, New Jersey,
company that provides services and products related to child care
and other family management issues. "We don't think the
only solution is to stay home; parents don't have that luxury.
But we think it's good there has been greater attention [paid]
to how to get quality child care. There are, in fact, things you
can do to ensure your child is receiving good care."

Today, quality is key. What might have at first seemed like
negative publicity for the industry has actually helped some
entrepreneurs, including Zaiac Wasser and Adler Manket. Last year,
the partners launched The Nanny Training Program, an interactive
kit designed to heighten parents' confidence, improve the
selection of child-care providers and manage caregivers. Its
workbook asks potential caregivers for responses to hypothetical
situations; a video details the challenges and safety issues that
arise when caring for kids. It's all about quality care, and
parents are snapping up the workbook and video by the hundreds.

Zaiac Wasser and Adler Manket insist irresponsible caregivers
are the exception, not the rule. But companies that intend to
survive are responding to the magnified parental anxiety--by
thoroughly checking references, providing training and giving
psychological tests to potential caregivers.

"I don't think it's hurt the industry,"
contends Zaiac Wasser. "It's redefining [it]. The bar has
been raised for better quality and better teamwork between the
[caregivers] and the parents."

Waiting To Exhale

Small business holds its breath amid Asia's financial
crisis.

By Charlotte Mulhern

By now, we've all seen the headlines, but what does the
Asian economic crisis really mean for small business?

First, some background: The meltdown dates back to July,
occurring on the heels of the Thailand bank fiasco, caused by an
unwise lending spree that lasted several years. In a much-expected
domino effect, the economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and South Korea soon mirrored Thailand's economy
collapse. Then the International Monetary Fund stepped in, pledging
to lend, in installments, $35 billion to some of the depressed
nations. So now the world pauses, waiting for word on the long-term
consequences of Asia's dismal financial condition.

At press time, the fallout had yet to trickle down to small
business. "I haven't seen any credible reports [from] the
statistical offices yet," says Joseph Hayes, executive
director of the Washington, DC-based U.S. ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) Business Council. "Probably by the
end of the first quarter of '98, you'll begin to see on
which side of the fence this is going to fall."

For now, experts predict the backlash will strike at least one
segment of small business very hard: suppliers to large
corporations. Consider Boeing: Not only is the billion-dollar
corporation the largest export manufacturer in the United States,
but its top export market is Asia. In theory, if Asian buyers stop
buying aircraft, Boeing will stop buying from small suppliers many
of the nuts and bolts that go into building the airplanes.
"It's the smaller suppliers at the bottom of the food
chain who eventually will carry the brunt of the load," says
Hayes.

And if you're in the agricultural business, beware. Because
Asia--whose regional currencies are now worth as much as 40 percent
less than before--is the largest consumer of U.S. agricultural
exports in the world, small-business exporters of agricultural
goods are left with two options: Either raise the prices of
products sold in Asia to reflect the exchange rate, or lower prices
in a competitive motion and absorb the losses. But consider
yourself warned: "If those two things can't accommodate
the exchange rate fluctuation, the sale just doesn't take
place," Hayes explains.

At the very least, experts predict an overall slowdown in the
U.S. economy. On the plus side, however, Asian imports will likely
drop in price. "In chaos, there's opportunity," adds
Hayes. "People may be able to find new opportunities [as a
result of] these shifts in the market."

The Road Ahead

Minority business owners often look on the bright
side.

By Charlotte Mulhern

Although entrepreneurs are widely known for their enthusiasm, a
recent Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) study reveals that minority
small-business owners are even more optimistic about the future
than their nonminority counterparts. Why the variance?

"Minority businesses are getting more respect from their
various suppliers [than in the past]," contends William F.
Doescher, senior vice president at D&B. "They're
finding it easier to manage cash flow and overcome the traditional
problems of getting access to capital, and they're feeling less
discriminated [against]." These factors lead to a notable 72
percent of minority entrepreneurs expecting healthy profits this
year, compared to 62 percent of nonminority entrepreneurs.

"We're very optimistic," says Gordon H. Chong,
founder of architectural firm Gordon H. Chong & Partners in San
Francisco--the same company, by the way, that landed the
number-three spot in our January listing of the nation's top 10
minority-owned small businesses. Why is he so confident?
"There's a tremendous amount of pent-up demand that has
yet to be satisfied, at least in our industry," says Chong,
who expects nearly a $1.5 million increase over last year's $12
million in revenues.

As the results indicate, Chong is not alone in such positive
thinking. And all the shared optimism leads to real benefits for
this second-fastest-growing segment of small businesses.
"Optimism leads to more aggressive marketing and greater
investment in business," explains Doescher. "But best of
all, the optimism should result in job growth in small businesses,
not only further sustaining the U.S. economy but also strengthening
minority-owned small businesses."

Shifting Gears

It's time to break out your bicycle legs.

By Heather Page

Despite the hard work involved in running a business, many
entrepreneurs manage to break out of the office. With spring in the
air, you may spot them riding bicycles--in shirt and tie.

In a nationwide trend, 30 million people participated in
Bike-To-Work Month last May, according to the League of American
Bicyclists in Washington, DC. And considering the many benefits of
biking to work, entrepreneurs and their employees would be wise to
get in on the action.

Pedal-pushing is not only healthy, it lowers health insurance
rates and even improves employee morale, experts say. For online
entrepreneurs Brian Robertson, 24, and Warren Adams, 31,
co-founders of PlanetAll in Cambridge, Massachusetts, bicycling and
rollerblading to the office have many advantages. Says Robertson,
"Besides being a great way to get outside and get my exercise,
it's also quicker because there aren't any parking
hassles."

The downside to riding your two-wheeler to work? Helmet head,
wet pant legs and rumpled clothing. However, purchasing good
equipment and planning ahead will minimize these drawbacks, putting
you and your employees on the bicycle path to health and
happiness.

Offer a place to shower at work (or at least a changing room
with a curtain and sink).

Encourage employees to wear helmets.

Carry your work clothes in a garment bag, or bring a week's
worth of clothes on a day you don't bike to work.

Bike to work yourself and offer employees incentives such as
free bicycle helmets.

Split Ends

A little effort goes a long way.

By Debra Phillips

Maybe you know the theory. Maybe you don't. For those who
don't, we'll explain that the 80/20 Principle centers
around the idea that less is, well, more. Specifically, this means
80 percent of results stem from only 20 percent of efforts. How
could this be? Author Richard Koch conducts a thorough analysis in
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret Of Achieving More With Less
(Doubleday, $25 cloth).

According to Koch, the 80/20 split holds up in the business
arena--where, he writes, a mere 20 percent of customers account for
roughly 80 percent of sales. Factor in a similar imbalance between
the number of products you have and your corresponding sales, and
you begin to understand what a difference a little more effort
could make--if it's strategically applied.

Heard On The Street

By Debra Phillips

Giving a whole new meaning to the term "net profits,"
the National Basketball Association (NBA) recently announced plans
to launch its first retail store. Set to open in September, the New
York City NBA Store aims to court sports fans with enough licensed
b-ball merchandise to fill more than 15,000 square feet of space.
Guess if Chicago Bulls super-superstar Michael Jordan ever needs to
supplement his income, he could always moonlight as a sales
clerk.

Are we the only ones who are getting a little tired of the
M-word? (Millennium, that is.) Presumably so, if trademark filings
are any indication. According to research compiled by the law
offices of Dechert Price & Rhoads, the words
"millennium" and "millennia" are current
popular choices in the brand-name game. Other favorites include
"extreme," "Web," "global,"
"planet," "link," "nation" and
"Asia." Hey, does this mean we should change our name to
Extreme Entrepreneur Millennium Nation?

It's taken a while--years, actually--for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to formulate official standards
for the organic foods industry. Even as the $3 billion-plus
industry keeps growing, however, the USDA is getting closer to
establishing the guidelines that will separate the organic from the
inorganic. Keep your ear--and we don't mean corn--to the
ground.

How Odd

Offbeat locations can be winners.

By G. David Doran

With so much competition out there, a small business must
sometimes go to great lengths to succeed. Finding a location
swarming with potential customers may require a bit of
"creative sitework."

Take, for example, The Cavern Supply Company in New Mexico's
Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The company runs two different
shops there, a gift shop at ground level and a lunch shop in the
caverns--750 feet underground.

Operating a business that has literally never seen the light of
day isn't easy, according to Cavern Supply Company president
George Crump. "It's a challenge to bring in supplies and
get rid of garbage," says Crump, who sells sweatshirts, food
and hot drinks to visitors chilled by the caverns' constant
56-degree temperature. "Everything and everybody, including my
employees, has to go in and out by elevator--and it's a
three-minute trip."

Customers don't seem to mind, though. Each year, more than
600,000 people visit the caverns and shops, which have been open
since 1930.

Creative sitework can also mean opening a business in a location
so unique, customers can't help but be intrigued.

The Church Brew Works near Pittsburgh is a former Irish/Scottish
Catholic church built in 1902 that's now considered sacred
ground by beer lovers. The site houses a brewpub and restaurant
that features such aptly named potables as Pious Monk Dunkel.

Although the church has been slightly remodeled to accommodate
the business (the altar area now contains a 15-barrel brewery, for
example), company president Sean Casey insisted on making as few
changes as possible to the church's basic layout.

"We wanted to highlight the inherent beauty of the
building," says Casey, who opened the brewpub, the first in
the nation to be housed in a church, in 1996. "It's a
simple, elegant structure, and we tried to minimize the impact of
putting in a restaurant/bar by keeping as much of the original
structure intact as we could."

You Wanna Do What?

By G. David Doran

Selling the concept of an unusual, offbeat business such as an
oxygen bar to customers is difficult enough, but given today's
tight commercial real estate market, you may also have to sell the
concept to a prospective landlord.

"[Landlords] don't want trouble," says associate
commercial real estate broker Cynthia J. Kratchman of Friedman Real
Estate Group Inc. in Farmington Hills, Michigan. "They want
stability. If the use is too offbeat, the chances of the business
surviving are less and they end up having to re-rent the
space."

So how do you convince a landlord your unique business won't
end up as just another empty storefront with soaped windows?
Kratchman suggests a little salesmanship is in order. "The
landlord might try and put you off, so be persistent and try to get
a meeting," she says. "You're selling the landlord on
the fact that you have the mental, physical and financial
wherewithal to start and run this business. You should also be
prepared: Bring some financial information with you and show a good
business plan."

If the landlord remains skeptical, says Kratchman, hire a local
commercial real estate broker who knows the spaces and their
landlords, and let that person do the talking for you.

Off The Clock

New rules on bonuses and overtime pay.

By Stephen Barlas

The looming election-year debate over a minimum-wage increase
opens the door to serious talk about a business-sought employee
bonus reform amendment. We might see a compromise gel this
summer--if such groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the
National Association of Manufacturers agree to accept a
minimum-wage increase in exchange for passage of the Rewarding
Performance and Compensation Act (H.R. 2710).

Proposed by Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC), chair of the House
Workforce Protections Subcommittee, H.R. 2710 would make it easier
for companies to give their hourly employees performance-based
bonuses. Hearings on the bill will likely take place in the next
few months.

Currently, a company paying variable bonuses must divide those
individual bonuses by the number of weeks the bonus is meant to
cover, for example, 52. Then that figure is added to the
employee's hourly wage, and his or her overtime pay for the
year is refigured. An overtime payment must then be added to the
bonus.

If an employee has not worked overtime, the system is simple.
And if the company gives the same bonus to all hourly employees,
overtime does not have to be refigured. "The problem is that
you can't improve performance by paying the same bonus across
the board," maintains Bob Niedzielski, director of human
resources development for Tighe Industries Inc., a York,
Pennsylvania, costume and gymnastics-apparel manufacturer.

Tighe was audited by the Department of Labor in 1993 after it
distributed $307,000 in variable bonuses for the previous fiscal
year. Tighe had to do the recalculations--and ante up an additional
$12,390 in overtime pay.

Peter Eide, labor policy manager for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, says the performance bonus issue must be addressed. Says
Eide, "We've had members who were on the verge of issuing
bonuses, found out about the overtime recalculation provision, and
were then stymied."

Bills, Bills, Bills

Need a boost? The proposed SBA budget could cheer you
up.

By Cynthia E. Griffin

Small-business owners could get a big increase in services and
funding if Congress approves President Clinton's proposed
fiscal year 1999 SBA budget.

The proposed $724.4 million budget is slightly more than a 1
percent increase over the 1998 appropriation and, according to a
Senate Small Business Committee spokesperson, is one of the best
SBA budgets ever submitted.

Among the proposals:

adding $153 million to the 7(a) General Business Loan Guaranty
program, which is expected to support $11 billion in new loans

infusing $5.7 million into the Microloan Program, which, when
leveraged, will total $60 million

more than doubling funding for the Women's Business Center
Network from $4 million to $9 million, which will help underwrite
the establishment of up to 30 new centers and subcenters

allocating $4 million toward the HUBZone program, which
provides federal government contracting opportunities to small
businesses located in economically distressed areas

pumping $10 million into the Small Business Investment
Corporation (SBIC) program.

At press time, the budget as a whole was scheduled to move from
the House and Senate Appropriations committees to their respective
floors for debate. Then comes a full-Congress vote and most likely
a trip to a conference committee to reconcile differences. Once
approved by Congress, the budget returns to the President for a
signature by October 1. Although the Senate Small Business
Committee is concerned that the allocation for the SBIC program may
be too small, officials do not expect any significant battles over
the SBA proposals.